My Year 11 daughter in the midst of GCSEs just told me that 29 pupils have signed up to take A level Music & Music Technology in the sixth form. This is before the intake of outsiders into the sixth form, which also offers 15 music places to new students in the sixth form.

So that would be potentially 44 students taking A level Music in a Inner London Comprehensive! I am truely amazed. Last year 2007, 23 students at the school took A Level Music or Music technology.

Surely this must be a good thing. Does anyone know of other Comprehensives with these sort of numbers for A level Music?

It does sound great, but (without knowing much about this) my suspicion is that many of these are taking music technology. Now, while I'm sure that many music tech students are motivated and talented, my friend who has taught music tech (in London) tells me that many of his students have little knowledge or experience, and little understanding of what they have let themselves in for - they seem to see it as an easy and glamorous option, and so don't get much out of the course, although the course content is very good.

I know this may sound a bit gloomy, and of course it may not apply at all to your daughters' school, but I would be interested to know what the split is between music/music tech, and whether those taking music tech have any prior experience.

nick

Last academic year 18 took A level Music and 5 took Music Technology, the requirement for entry was "a grade B or above in GCSE Music and be fluent in reading staff notation. Music Tech students must have Grade 5 theory." All achieved A - C grades.

The school has a large orchestra, (which tours in Europe every other year) concert band, wind band, brass band, jazz band, numerous chamber ensembles, rock bands and African drumming with of course several Choirs.

Several of students have G8s and Diplomas. Currently 6 are in LSSO and every year there is at least one in the NYO.

However looking at the destination of leavers list last year, only three went on to take Music Degrees and one of those was Music Production. Why? I wonder if it is just seen as a 'fun' subject in the sixth form, but not career potential.

In our year there were 4 of us, and the year above only had 2. However, out of all of those, only 1 isn't going on to a career in music.

To be honest, I would say that 44 is far too many. Our class sizes were lovely for A level - I wouldnt have wanted a much bigger class.

i dunno if you're lucky to have such a good intake or not...up in the North, i'm going into yr12 next year with me and 2 others in the class...so hopefully we'll work on stuff we need to....i hope

Well, that's pretty impressive! Thanks for the info.

nick

Thats a lot of people! My class only has six of us

wow! what school is this? Our school has none of this, and ours is supposed to be the best comprehensive school in the country (by the way, i go to Sheldon School in Chippenham)!

I'm not doing A level, but i know that this year's year 12 class has about 10 people in, and that is combined with Hardenhuish school sixth form (our school is opposite another secondary, with a huge field in between, because they used to be sperate boys and girls schools, then they changed to 2 seperate mixed schools).

In our year 13 class (combined with Hardenhuish), there are about 7, maybe 8 people taking music A level (we don't do music tech.).

Out of all of these people, only 2 of them are going on to do music at university (I'm friends with one of them who is off to Cardiff in September to do Viola).

We rarely have people who want to go on and do it as a career, and most do it for fun, and most are about grade 5-6 standard, but we've had a handful of good people.

We've had one boy go to Leeds college of music to do flute, one Girl to Manchester uni to do Cello, one girl to Durham (i think) to do piano, and this year we have a girl going to Cardiff to do viola, and a boy to go to nottingham (i think) to do piano and clarinet.

I wouldnt want a class that big, cos the small classes mean you have individual attention a lot of the time.

Jacob.

This year thre are 3 doing A2, next year there is 2 (inc. myself) and also 1 person doing AS. As the class for AS is so small the only way they could run it is by teaching it at the same time as A2. And the syllabus has changed.

Ayshah, your school sounds lovely... We have an 'orchestra' of 9, a wind quartet, string quartet and junior choir. End of....

In my AS class there is 4 of us, and 3 carrying on to do A2 next year. In my opinion i think 44 is too many, especially if they're all going to be in one class together! Are they going to be splitting them up?

Ayshah, you are so lucky to have found such a musical school for your children! There are only about 10,500 A-level music students in the whole of England & Wales, so 18 pupils is a lot for one school. If several play in top orchestras, that will really help to lift the level of the rest.

I think many music teachers make it clear to their pupils how difficult it is to make a living from music, particularly on the performing side; so if they are capable of taking a degree in something else, many do so. Some may well end up with a career in music after their degree though, and some of those who take Music degrees end up in jobs quite unrelated to music.

I hope your daughter enjoys being part of such a big A-level group - at least all the ensemble work can be done in house, which must make life easier.

How many people are there in her year? There's at least that many doing it in each year at my college, but then we do have 800 people to year.

Oooo thats a large number of pupils! Is that 800 in Y12 & 13 or combined?

Hers is a Girls Comprehensive School of 150 p.y.with a mixed 6th Form.

Approx 75 girls from the lower school go on to the 6th Form. There are approx 220 pupils respectively in Year 12 & Year 13. Many of the pupils come for the music, recommended there by their own music teachers. A substantial proportion of these come from Independent Schools (2 years saving on fees for parents

However there are issues with girls from the lower school who have diligently earned their places in the Senior Orchestra being 'bumped' when someone turns up in the 6th form with a diploma in say playing the triangle. Or you have someone who has been leader in their last school & challenges the 'resident' leader. My own daughter is section leader but is quite sure she will be 'bumped' next year by some new intake. I think its all character building, she will just have to pull her socks up and work harder for her place if she wants it. (Welcome to the real world kinda thing)

Yes she is lucky. The concerts are really wonderful. Occasionally well known conductors are invited to guest. A couple of members of staff are also in the orchestra e.g. the History & Classics teacher play the d.Bass. Most of all the Head recognises that the Orchestra is an important window for the school.

I am not too sure that all those students will take the two years course maybe just the AS, but participation looks good on your UCAS statement.

That is a good number, as I'm not sure my 6th form college had that many more than that taking the subject, despite a total of 3,000 Alevel students. Saying that, the IB class was decently sized.

I might be stirring a bit here, but surely there are plenty of reasons to do a subject other than music at Uni, however talented you are. Its not an easy option to make a career out of, unless you are very dedicated and passionate. Two of my closest friends on my course could easily have done music at University, but instead are becomming Chemical Engineers. The reasons for their decisions are varied, of course, but basically I think it boiled down to wanting to keep music as an enjoyable, if serious, hobby.

At the sixth form I go to, there are 7 of us who have done as level music and I think 4 are carrying on with it next year.

I dont know how many are going to do as level next year, and I arent sure how many are in the a2 level group. I think it is about 4/5.

I think 44 is too many, but then it depends on the amount of teachers.

Wow! That's a lot of people taking music!! I think there's only four of us doing AS next year, and only one is doing A2 next year at our school! And it's not due to bad teaching or anything, because the teachers are fantastic!!

I dont do it, but im in year 12 and there are 5 people doing AS, and 2 doing A level.

There's somewhere between 800 and 1000 in each year.

When I did it at AS, 5 started doing the course, but only 3 did the exam and I was the only A2 music.

However, my school music department was quite poor really...you went to a different school if you wanted a good music department.

Is that a Comprehensive Secondary School or a 6th Form College? With seven school years times 800 thats a very large numer of pupils, so I can see that the high numbers taking A level music would be relative. You must have several full time music teachers and loads of facilities. Thats Great.

In my daughter's comprehensive school with appx 200 per Y12 & Y13 even 18 students is a very high number interested enough to consider taking Music A level. With only 3 full time music teachers and about 4 part-time & they finally got a full-time admin assistant. (zillions of peris though) it is a very busy music department. Yes they are usually split up into smaller classes.

Music doesn't fit into the a level timetable for a lot of students so doing music A Level in the A2 class there are 3 plus 1 additional not in the group and at AS there are about 10 + 2 not in the group

44 sounds like a lot... that's more than the whole of year 13 in my shcool! There are 2 of us doing A2 music this year, and 2 in the lower sixth year.